The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at eight locations in Punjab and Chandigarh in connection with a Rs 95-crore money laundering probe against Phagwara-based Golden Sandhar Sugar Mill (earlier Wahid-Sandhar Sugars Limited), its associates and related persons.
Searches were conducted at the mill premises in Phagwara, a house in Khurampur village, and a gym in Phagwara owned by Shiromani Akali Dal leader Jarnail Singh Wahid. Wahid was earlier co-owner of the mill along with England-based NRI Sukhbir Singh Sandhar, who has not come to India since the registration of an FIR by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) in September 2023.
Wahid, a former Punjab Markfed chairman, remained managing director of Wahid-Sandhar Sugar Mill till 2024. Since then, the mill has been run by Rana Sugar Mills Limited, owned by Congress MLA from Kapurthala Rana Gurjeet Singh and his son, and Sultanpur Lodhi MLA Rana Inder Partap Singh.
The ED investigation is based on a VB FIR filed in September 2023 against Wahid, his wife Rupinder Kaur, his son Sandeep Singh, and nine others under various Sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to an ED official, in 1933, the Punjab government had leased 31.2 acres of land to Jagatjit Singh Sugar Mills for 99 years with conditions that it could not be transferred or mortgaged without prior approval.
“In 2000, Oswal Agro Mills Limited, a company of Jagatjit Singh Sugar Mills, signed a pact with Wahid-Sandhar Mills and sublet the lease to it. However, the Wahid Sandhar Sugars Limited, after acquiring the land, breached the conditions and mortgaged and sold the chunks of land,” an ED official added.
“During the investigation, it came to fore that the Wahid Sugar Mill mortgaged 31.3 acres of land for Rs 93.94 crore. Moreover, the mill administrators also sold 6 kanal and 4 marlas of government land in 2019,” the official further said.
The agency said Wahid Sandhar Sugar Limited had caused loss to the Punjab government while the mill owners made wrongful gains. “Proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 95 crore, generated out of such criminal activities, are under investigation,” it added.
VB arrests in 2023
After the FIR, the VB arrested Wahid, his wife, and son on September 30, 2023, for allegedly misusing and mortgaging the leased land. Others named in the FIR included then tehsildar of Phagwara, Parveen Chhiber (now posted in Nakodar), naib tehsildar Pawan Kumar, mill directors Sukhbir Singh Sandhar, Jarnail Singh Wahid, Sandeep Singh Wahid, Harvinderjit Singh Sandhar, Aman Sharma (additional director), Manjit Singh Dhillon, and Kuldeep Singh Sandhar. All accused are currently out on bail.
The Vigilance Bureau accused revenue officials of colluding with the mill management to prepare faulty revenue records that allowed the sale and mortgage of mill land for financial gain.
The case was registered under Sections 166 (public servant disobeying law), 177 (knowingly furnishing false information to a public servant), 210 (fraudulently obtaining decree for sum not due), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (Cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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